Album of the Week: Dry Branch Fire Squad "Hand Hewn"

Even though there have been a lot of good bluegrass artists around over the past few decades, the newgrass movement of the '70s and its continued influence has made it hard to determine what acts are worthwhile. The meandering jam bands with mandolins are the worst, but even the really traditional bluegrass groups are often frustrating to listen to on album when all they play are old Bill Monroe songs. Like another Wynton Marsalis album of Duke songs, why wouldn't I just listen to the real thing? Still, there's some great stuff out there and Dry Branch Fire Squad has been one of the best bands for both bluegrass and traditional music for thirty years. The lineup has changed slowly but steadily over the years, with founder and frontman Ron Thomason on mandolin being the one mainstay. Through all the changes and all the thirty years they've played, they've maintained the soul of traditional and bluegrass music while still managing, through song selection and harmonies, to stay fresh.

2001's Hand Hewn is the first Dry Branch album I heard and is still my favorite. The songs are all great, spanning Civil War ballads to religious songs to fantastical horse stories. But, what really sets this album apart from most is a devastating rendition of Hazel Dickens' own "Black Lung," sung a capella with Thomason and Dickens herself. The power of her voice is unparalleled, the words are bone chilling, and the song is absolutely amazing. There are a few songs with mixed gender harmonies, a great but relatively rare aspect, and they really set the album off, but "Black Lung" is truly one of the great tracks I've heard. Above is a version of the song by Thomason alone. It doesn't do justice to the power of the recording on Hand Hewn but it's still a great song.